As a reporter and columnist for the San Francisco Examiner in the 1970s, Kinsolving was the first to report on the Peoples Templecult led by Jim Jones, six years before the group's deaths in the jungles of Guyana; his reporting brought on vocal protesting by the group, and resulted in the newspaper canceling most of his multi-part series and replacing it with a more flattering portrayal of Jones. The episode left him angry with his treatment, and he left the Examiner, finally ending up in Washington, resuming a radio reporting career that began with a four-year stint at KCBS-FM in Sacramento, California.

His reputation was damaged in 1977, when Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus reported that Kinsolving had accepted $2,500 worth of stock from a lobbyist to report favorably on South Africa, which was still under apartheid at the time. Kinsolving's State Department press credentials were revoked by the reporters' committee which issued them and a reprimand from the Standing Committee of Correspondents, which administers press credentials to the United States Congress. Kinsolving appealed the action to the United States SenateRules Committee, and eventually won back his credentials.

In his early years in the Washington press corps, Kinsolving was well known for wearing his priest's collar to press conferences. Later on, he was famous for his bright red jacket.

Kinsolving has been an outspoken opponent of gay rights organizations — "the sodomy lobby," as he refers to them — mainly because of his religious beliefs.[1]

Though considered by most observers to be a political conservative, Kinsolving began his career in the 1960s as a liberal, and still holds many views considered to be left-wing; he is pro-choice and against the death penalty. On his show, Uninhibited Radio Free Maryland, Kinsolving often debates "The Berkeley Democrat" — his longtime wife, Sylvia.

After a verbal altercation with White House Press SecretaryTony Snow on July 25, 2007, Kinsolving's publisher, Joseph Farah of WorldNetDaily, wrote a harshly-worded column characterizing Snow's comments as "...a rebuke, and a threat, and an attempt to control Les Kinsolving and WorldNetDaily's right to ask questions at the White House." Farah announced that Kinsolving would no longer be attending White House press briefings as a result.[2] WND later reported that after a "one-on-one conference" with Snow, Kinsolving agreed to return to the briefings.[3]